Encouraging Children to Help With Chores

As a homemaker, I face the daily task of  keeping the home; and also teaching my children the value and joy of helping keep home. But, it has not always been easy to encourage them to help. Along the road, I have learned a few tricks that have helped them along with wanting to help out with cheerful hearts.

How to Encourage Children to Help With Chores:

1. When teaching you child a new chore, or when trying to encourage them to do their chores well, it is important to keep a positive attitude and paint the picture of the result that their hard work will bring about.
2. When they are young, they tend to be more eager to help. Let them, even if it means you’ll have to mop up a little extra water from the floor. Say thank you often and let them know how helpful they are being.
3. Put on some fun music while doing chores. I know I clean and do my chores with such a better attitude when music is playing in the background.
4. Don’t overload them with chores. The older kids are, the more they are able to do. But that should not mean they are the ones doing everything. This could lead to complete disinterest in helping out, which will make chores a stressful time in your home.

 

 

Something else I love to do after we finish our chores is to treat ourselves to something. My kids like board games so we play something like Uno Headbanz and it makes for so much fun. I also like to encourage them to stop and look at what their hard work produced. They really enjoy seeing the fruit of their labor and seeing how they too can help create a clean and organized space in their home.
My youngest is too young to do chores but my other two kids are fully able to.

Here is a list of chores my children assist with:

Some are done daily, and others weekly as needed:

Chores for my 3 (almost 4 year old)-

• Pick up toys
• Put dirty clothes in laundry baskets
• Bring laundry baskets to the laundry room
• Wipe down coffee tables
• Fold towels
• Help unload dishwasher (except for sharp objects)

Chores for my 11 year old-

• Dishes
• Laundry (from loading the washer to folding and putting away)
• Changes own bed sheets
• Wipe down counters and pick up kitchen
• Vacuum and mop floors
• Empty garbage and replace garbage bins with new bags
• Put away groceries

For every family chores will look different. Ours have changed over the years due to moves, or seasons of life. But, I always keep the four principles in mind when dealing with chores. I want to encourage my children to be helpful and also have something to look forward to once their chores are complete. Sometimes that is simply the enjoyment of having a clean room and home to relax in, and others it having a calm and clean environment to enjoy some fun and games together in.